That’s hard, though, when you’re one of Hollywood’s fastest rising directors. Stuff like that makes me go, ‘I need to connect more.’” My mom once forgot to invite me to a family thing because she forgot I was in town. “I’m from New York City and my family’s mostly there and I’ve never shot there since I’ve been working. “I mean, this my third film in six years and I’m onto my fourth,” she says. Sony will release “A Journal for Jordan” in theaters on Friday, December 24.DaCosta, a self-described workaholic, can relate. What did Charles want to teach his son? It only takes about 90 minutes to get a taste - by then, there’s not much here to write home about. And while that can be a bit schmaltzy and melodramatic, at least it packs a message and tone more befitting the source material. Maybe give him the journal? Just an idea!įortunately, Dana does eventually fork it over, along with the heartbreaking story of their little family, and the film’s final act is more in line with the story that’s trying to be told here - and certainly the one the book itself inspired. ![]() Hell, good luck trying to track the path of the letter, because by the time we meet tween Jordan (a very sweet Jalon Christian, given far too little to do), the kid has zero idea about his dad, which only leads to a series of hammy and weird expositional moments that struggle to lend shape to the film’s final act. (For a seasoned journalist, you’d think Dana would understand that a soldier can’t just go on vacation from a literal war to see the birth of his kid, but God forbid “A Journal for Jordan” doesn’t include such a scene to pump up the pain.)Ĭriss-crossing timelines and flashbacks don’t help much good luck trying to track the path of the actual journal. And that drama often lets down the film’s few strengths, like the complex character of Dana, rendered silly and screechy with awkward regularity. Instead, like many other concepts that crop up in the film’s middling middle act, it’s only deployed when still more drama is needed. The film attempts to mine a compelling tension between Charles’ sense of duty and his love for his men and his relationship with Dana, but it’s never fully fleshed out. Important characters and subplots are picked up and dropped at random - including, but not limited to, Dana’s parents, Dana’s siblings, Dana’s job, Charles’ first child, Charles’ career aspirations - and only circled back to when there needs to be some outside drama. And yet, if the best thing you can say about a film so stuck on its romance that “it was nice when they went to Central Park,” perhaps other avenues need to be explored, ASAP. Washington shot the film in and around New York City last spring, and while Dana and Charles are often stuck inside her apartment, moments in which they venture out and around the city help open up their love story. ![]() That we know it “works out” insofar as they eventually have a cute kid together doesn’t help, and neither does the lingering knowledge that something bad is going to happen (at some point?) and pull them apart forever. So, what’s the letter? Where’s the journal? And who exactly would opt to spend precious time with their child detailing the time Mommy and Daddy did it with the drapes open?Īnd that’s what we get for the majority of the film’s running time: a fraught love story between two people who probably shouldn’t have to work so hard to just be together. Uh, right? And yet the film fails to adhere to this very basic storytelling conceit, as Williams’ script soon opts to unpack a fraught romance that few people would feel comfortable sharing with their offspring. The implication is as clear as anything in Virgil Williams’ fumbling script: She’s penning said letter to give to the cute kiddo along with the titular journal, all in a bid to explain the love story from which he sprang. No, it’s not what you’re expecting, and what it is isn’t very good, either.īased (apparently?) on Dana Canedy’s memoir, Washington’s film kicks off with a heartbroken and recently widowed Dana (Chanté Adams) writing a heartfelt letter to her young son. ![]() Jordan) a soldier deployed to Iraq who begins to keep a journal of love and advice for his infant son” - but the end result is a baffling feature that so desperately wants to be an entirely different film that audiences might worry they’ve stepped into the wrong theater. Denzel Washington’s “ A Journal for Jordan” certainly has a straightforward enough premise - per its own synopsis, it’s “based on the true story of First Sergeant Charles Monroe King ( Michael B. “It wasn’t what I was expecting” is perhaps the cheapest piece of criticism that can be lobbed at a work of art, but in the case of, oh, a fact-based melodrama that pulls from both a) real life and b) the memoir written about it, some basic expectations are inevitable.
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